Picorna viruses are the smallest known animal RNA viruses, they have 7 genera, i.e., rhinovirus genus, enterovirus genus, aphthovirus genus, cardiovirus genus, hepatovirus genus and dual echovirus genus, and other unclassified picorna viruses. Picorna viruses may cause many diseases such as respiratory diseases, hand-foot-mouth diseases, meningitis/encephalitis, poliomyelitis, cardiovascular diseases, hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, hepatitis, etc.
There was a great progression in virology in the later period of 1980s. Several important events in viral life cycle were well described, and many molecular targets had been confirmed. In addition, some novel antiviral drugs appeared during the recent years also promote the rapid development of virology. Picorna virus inhibitors are exactly in increased research stage. The action target of these inhibitors is viral protein 1 (VP1), which has a relatively conservative capsid structure and mediates the adhesion/uncoating process of virus. VP1 from different serotype viruses are highly conservative in structure, but are very important for the replication of viruses. Thus, inhibitors acting on this target are very possible to be drugs against picorna viruses.